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CNN Live Today

Interview With Republican Strategist Ed Gillespie

Aired May 17, 2002 - 14:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, ANCHOR: This hour we are going to return to Republican strategist Ed Gillespie. He joins us live from Washington. Ed, good afternoon. Good to see you again.

ED GILLESPIE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Hi, Bill. Good to see you, too.

HEMMER: First of all, before we get to the meat of a lot of discussions I want to get to, what are we to make from this 1999 report two years prior to the attacks of September 11 that may have tipped off some alarms and some red flags that said, you know what? There might be some guys out there trying to devise this plan and trying to pull it off.

GILLESPIE: Bill, this is news to me and as Ari said, it was news to him. The briefing for the administration last spring was in generalities more along the lines of the traditional hijackings that we had seen in the '70s and '80s. The same kind of briefing, by the way, that was afforded Democrats in Congress in the Spring of 2001, and the only difference between the Spring of 2001 and the Spring of 2002 is that this is an election year.

Unfortunately they are resorting to politics here. In the Spring of 2001 the same Democrats could easily, if they felt the need to having had the benefit of the same information, inform the public of it, could have done so. If they felt there was a need to urge the White House to inform the public, could have done so, but again, in the pre-9/11 environment that was not the mentality. And it is unfortunate, it is wrong, it is really reprehensible to try to treat this as if we had the same kind of information today as that had then.

HEMMER: I understand your point. I understand your answer. I think the thing that bothers people -- and you can see it in the surveys we have done already -- again it's early, just about 36 hours into this whole deal, but the thing that bothers people is the fact that it was sat on for basically eight months, or even if you want to go back to July of last year, or even August when the president was at least given this intelligence briefing.

That is what bothers people, why it did not come out before. Is that the proper route to take, looking back now in hindsight?

GILLESPIE: That is the way classified briefings are treated, Bill. They are not made public. They are given to people who have intelligence clearance. As i said, the Democrats in Congress had the benefit of this same information at the same time.

I think it is unfortunate when aspiring presidential candidates on the Democratic side of the aisle try to make issue of this. They should just stop for one moment on the way to microphone and ask themselves what is the impact I am having here on victims' families from 9/11 when I raise the prospect that the president, or anyone else in our government, had information that could have prevented this tragic event, historically tragically event, and didn't act on it. And I have to tell you that for just once they should stop, put politics aside, and think about the public impact.

HEMMER: Ed, it appears more likely than ever that some sort of hearings may take place and they may even be public. How prudent is that right now?

GILLESPIE: I think there is a rush here that the members of Congress should consider carefully what it is they are going to make public. We as citizens have a right to know certain information, but also the government and those with security clearances have an important need to have some information that is kept secret.

But, look, this tragic events of September 11 were preceded by other tragic events, the bombing of the Cole, the bombing of U.S. embassies. There is a long history, here, unfortunately, of not connecting dots in terms of the intelligence community that this White House moved to try to fix in the wake of 9/11, in fact actually was moving to try to fix before September 11. But if they are going to consider these things they should consider them in their entirety.

HEMMER: Ed, I am almost out of time here, but I want to get a quick answer to this question. How much more do you believe will come out publicly about what was known last summer?

GILLESPIE: Bill, I don't know. But I will tell you that right now I had the benefit of working for this president in his campaign. I don't pretend to know him well, but I do know this.

If President Bush had information that indicated in any way that one single American life was in jeopardy from actions of a foreign terrorist, believe me, the full weight and force of the U.S. government and our military would have been brought to bear, and he would have done all he could to prevent them and I believe that, by the way, to be true had there been a Democrat siting in the White House at the time.

HEMMER: Thanks, Ed. Ed Gillespie, live in D.C. Republican strategist us with thoughts from there.

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